


We Dance My Love, Into the Night

by SentientMango



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (It’s during a ‘play’ fight), Ballroom Dancing, Canon Universe, Cooking, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Being Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Fireworks, Fluff, Food, Injury, Love Confessions, M/M, Play Fighting, Remus being Remus, Roceit - Freeform, Swearing, THEY’RE ALL FRIENDS, so minor gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:26:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28458258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SentientMango/pseuds/SentientMango
Summary: Roman is throwing his annual ball and this year a few new guests have been invited, although it was the day before and Roman might have not delivered one of the most important invitations yet, it would be fine! Everything was under control.
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28
Collections: Sanders Sides 2020 Gift Exchange, TSS Fanworks Collective





	We Dance My Love, Into the Night

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my parts for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange for @dragonindigo245! (The other was a drawing posted over on tumblr!)

Roman walked through the roads of the mindscape as he made his way back into his corner of Thomas’s mind. Roman had just finished delivering the final invitation to the annual ball he threw every year, well delivered was a strong word, he’d searched for Janus’s house for a few hours and then tracked down Remus instead. He wasn’t 100% sure Remus knew where Janus lived but Roman had confidence that Remus would get the news to him in one way or another, although he wasn’t quite sure in what state the physical invitation would be in. 

Maybe Roman shouldn’t have put delivering it off for so long. He had delivered all the others weeks ago but for some reason, he couldn’t or hadn’t managed to deliver that one. Something in the back of his mind kept whispering that he wouldn’t come even if Roman invited him, so not inviting him was the best way to beat the rejection to the punch.

Roman kicked a small pile of leaves frustratedly and the wind quickly scooped them up and began to swirl around him before beginning to twist a path in front of him. Roman hummed before following them into the woods. Eventually, they brought him to a stone path which Roman began to follow.

As Roman approached the end of the path, he smiled as he recognized it as the pathway leading to Patton’s house. He heard the familiar giggling of children, the memories of children that Thomas knew or had known, and Thomas himself, or more literally, a personification of some parts of Thomas’s inner child. Roman passed by the backyard and jumped over the fence which had little painted handprints and flowers all over it. The backyard was constantly changing, and Roman loved to see what the kids were up to now and again. 

“Roman!” A younger looking Thomas, who was missing a few teeth, slid down a pole from the treehouse that was occupying the backyard and ran over to him. He narrowly avoided tripping over his untied shoelace and grabbed Roman’s hand. “We’re playing pirates!” He glanced around before beckoning Roman to lean down, “and we’re hiding from the sea monster.” He said in a not so quiet whisper, “Shh!”

Roman glanced around, “Of course! Back to the ship, young buccaneer!”

Thomas nodded, although Roman was pretty sure he didn’t know what buccaneer meant, and began to tiptoe back toward the ‘ship’. Roman noticed with a smile that Tiny Thomas had a makeshift sword in his belt, it was cardboard with a pool noodle around it to prevent any actual injuries. 

Thomas clambered up the ladder and waved for Roman to follow, but before he could he was tacked. Roman heard the playful shrieks of the children in the treehouse and he looked up at his ‘attacker’.

Patton was grinning down at him, his glasses were hanging from his shirt. “Hey!” He said before turning back to the kids and presumably making a face because they all giggled and ducked below the edge of the ship. “Are you just stopping by?” Patton asked.

“Yeah.” Roman said with a smile, “I was just checking up on you guys!”

Patton grinned and turned back to the kids, “This one’s mine!” Who shrieked various versions of ‘No!’ And ‘Ah!’ as Patton began to carry Roman back into the house.

“Go on without me!” Roman called up to the kids, “Be careful out on the high seas!”

Once they got a bit further away from the action, Patton set Roman back on his feet and hugged him. “Well, it’s great to see you. Are you coming later?”

“Of course!” Roman said, “I wouldn’t miss Family Dinner Friday!”

Patton smiled, “How’s the dance been coming? You’ve been working on it for months now.”

“It’s coming along marvelously, I can’t wait for you to see it tomorrow!”

Patton bobbed his head up and down excitedly, “This is going to be so much fun!”

Roman grinned, “Indeed it will!” He paused, “Patton can I ask your advice on something?”

“Sure thing!”

Just then, a little girl with pigtails ran up and presented her arm which was bleeding slightly, it looked like she had fallen. 

“Look at that battle wound!” Roman said, immediately changing the subject.

The girl puffed out her chest slightly, “I got it while trying to catch the sidekick of the Wise Spider of the Deepest Darkest Lagoon!”

“The wise spider? What a coincidence we happen to be good friends!” Roman said while Patton began to clean her cut. “Do be careful with them,” Roman said in a fake whisper, “They pretend to be all tough, but they're a little fragile.”

“You’re all good to go!” Patton said as he finished putting on the bandaid.

She jumped to her feet, “I won’t forget Mr. Roman!” She said as she ran back to the ship.

“I should probably get going, stop distracting you, they seem to be quite capable of getting themselves into trouble,” Roman said as he watched her return to the ship, “seems to me like you’ve got your hands full enough as it is.”

“Alrighty, well if you want to talk to me about that thing later, we always have dinner!”

“Right,” Roman said. “If I’m still looking for guidance then I’ll be sure to come to you!”

“Thanks for dropping by!”

Roman waved as he walked out the front door and out the fence that surrounded the house. Time didn’t really exist there, Roman could simply choose to appear at his home if he wished, but something in his mind kept him wandering. Roman came to the base of a ranch-style house that was attached to a greenhouse, a huge laboratory, and an even bigger library. Roman smiled as he heard the melodic tunes of the violin from inside. 

He walked up to the door, passing by the observation tower, and knocked on the door of the house, which looked quite out of place attached to all the extraordinary buildings of science and knowledge which surrounded it. 

The violin halted and after a few moments, Logan opened the door. “Roman, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Nice to see you too,” Roman said as he walked in. “How's Avery doing?”

Logan smiled softly, “She’s doing well. I would like to thank you for creating her for me, she is very helpful.”

Roman grinned, “Aw! I love you too Specs.”

Logan huffed but didn’t protest, “Would you like to see her?”

“Yeah sure!” Roman said as he hopped up on Logan’s kitchen counter.

“Be careful,” Logan warned before turning into the house. “There’s a lot of breakable stuff on that counter.” A few moments later, a beautiful parrot flew into the room and began to cling to Logan’s shirt. 

“You should have learnt to whistle!” Roman asked as Avery flew over to him. “I find it very effective to communicate with birds.”

“Whistling to birds is a very fairytale thing to do.” Logan said, “Frankly my way works just as well, it’s like summoning, she can choose to stay or come, but she knows I am requesting her presence, and it is quiet, and thus less obnoxious than whistling.”

“And you can’t whistle.”

“That’s not the point!” Logan huffed, “Whether I can or can not whistle does not impact the fact that my way of calling Avery is much more efficient.”

“Perhaps,” Roman said as Avery pressed her head into his finger he was using to pet her. “But you know, it’s nice to know that I’m better at you at one thing.”

“You’re better at many things. You’re much better at summoning and conjuring than I am.”

Roman waved him off, “oh that comes with the job, but whistling? That was something I did myself.”

“Well did you come here to talk about anything, or just to see Avery-” Logan cleared his throat as he said, “-and ‘flex’ your whistling talent on me?”

“Hey you didn’t even need your flashcards that time!” Roman said. “I’m proud of you!”

Logan fiddled with the knot of his tie, “Thank you. So you did just come for Avery?”

“Well I do love her, but I actually came to ask for your advice.”

Logan perked up, “Really? Well I will do my best to provide insight into whatever you need.”

Roman smiled and sent Avery back over to Logan, “In your objective opinion, hypothetically if someone didn’t come to the ball tomorrow, would that be a sign they didn’t like me?”

Logan squinted slightly as he looked at Roman. “In my _purely_ objective opinion… it is not necessarily a sign of them disliking you. It is a possibility, yes. However, that would be jumping to a conclusion, that in itself would not be enough data to draw an accurate conclusion of the situation.”

Roman nodded slightly, “Okay, thanks.”

“This is about our new guests this year.” It wasn’t a question.

“I’m not very good at hiding things, am I?” Roman replied to which Logan laughed.

“No, no you aren’t. Perhaps you could ask some tips from Janus, he seems to be the person to ask when you have a secret to hide.”

Roman laughed nervously, “Secret? I don’t have any secrets.”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t saying you did.”

“Right!” Roman said far too quickly, “Well thank you for all your help Logan.”

“I’m glad I could help.” Logan said, “Are you off so soon?” 

“I have some business to attend to,” Roman said. “However I’ll see you at dinner.” Roman pet Avery, “and I’ll hopefully see _you_ sooner than it was last time.”

“I think she’d appreciate that,” Logan said as he looked fondly at Avery. “Goodbye.”

Roman waved as he slipped out the door and leant against it. 

That didn’t go very well.

It would be much easier if he could go to Janus for help to conceal the bubbling of nerves he got whenever Janus so much as looked in his general direction, but that was extremely not an option.

He didn’t know where to go next, but Roman just started walking, he was almost sure Logan would be watching, and he wanted to look like he had some sort of a plan. Roman began to roam(an) around the woods. Logan had said that it wasn’t a guarantee that he disliked Roman if he didn’t show up, but it was a possibility. And if it was a possibility then Roman needed to prepare for it.

Roman began to pace around a small clearing as he began to rehearse the different scenarios that might lead to him not showing up. In the middle of one of his disaster scenarios in which Janus did _come_ but got accidentally burnt by the fireworks and was so mad that he never spoke to Roman again, he heard a voice behind him.

“Are you trying to start a fire?”

Roman whirled around, and frowned when he saw no one behind him, “Hello?” Roman said as he looked around, “am I going insane?” Roman mumbled to himself.

“Up here dipshit.”

Roman glanced up and saw Virgil sitting slouched on the crook of a branch. “Yo.” He said.

“What in Merlin’s beard are you doing up there?”

Virgil sighed, “Well the thing is, I was relaxing, listening to music just as loud as I possibly could, trying to fall asleep right? Then suddenly, out of nowhere, I feel so much emotional turmoil just in the middle of the forest. Good thing I came too, or else you might have literally created a forest fire with all your pacing.”

“Don’t you mean _figuratively_ Dear Evan Heathen?”

Virgil snorted and sat up straighter, “No actually, I don’t. You’re literally sparking, creating flame, igniting the ground. I _assume_ unintentionally, but that doesn’t really matter when everything’s up in flames does it?”

Roman glanced around and saw that where he’d been pacing there was a small ring of burnt grass. “What the hell?” He cried as he jumped and tried to scramble away from the sparks that now seemed to be everywhere.

“Fucking idiot.” Virgil mumbled before yelling down to Roman, “Stay _still!_ What are you doing? It’s coming from you!”

“How do I get it to stop?!” Roman said as he flailed.

Virgil jumped down next to Roman and grabbed his shoulders. He flinched slightly as a spark burst off Roman and almost hit him in the face, as he said, “How am I supposed to know? But you have to calm down. You’re panicking.”

“No shit Sher-not!” Roman said as he sat down defeatedly on the ground.

Virgil snorted and shook his head, “That wasn’t even- you know what it’s fine, you’re struggling.” Virgil sat down a safe distance next to Roman and asked, “Why’d you come out here anyway?”

“I had some stuff to think through,” Roman replied vaguely.

“Well you’re gonna tell me. Cause this vague stuff isn’t gonna stop your fiery problem.”

Roman huffed in annoyance, “I suppose... if you _must_ know... I’m a little bit nervous about the ball.” 

“You’ve never burst into fire over it before,” Virgil pointed out. “So something’s different. Is it Janus and Remus?”

“Huh?”

“Well this the first time they’re coming. Is that it?”

Roman tilted his head slightly, “Yeah, yeah that’s it.”

“Well knowing them, and I do know them, they’re gonna be stoked. A chance to dress up all extra, and a party? Yeah they’re gonna have fun, don’t worry ‘bout it.”

“So they’re gonna come?” 

“Is _that_ what you're worried about?” Virgil asked, “Yeah of course they'll come. They can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but they’re not impolite, well...” Virgil paused, “calling Remus polite is a stretch, but he’ll come. Probably whether you want him too or not.” 

Roman fiddled with his sash, wrapping it tight around one of his hands. “That’s good to know.”

“Hey, it’s gonna go well.” Virgil said, “Look I know I’m probably not the best one to be giving you advice about this, and no matter what I say I’m gonna be a fucking hypocrite, but I can tell that you’re brewing up a worst case scenario, and it’s clearly not doing you any good.”

“Yeah…”

“Just let it be, even as creativity, you can only control so much.”

Roman nodded slightly and looked through the gap in the trees, “Yeah, you're right.”

“Wow would you look at that,” Virgil said dryly, “you’re not a human firework anymore.”

Roman glanced around, sure enough the sparks were gone.

“You’re stealing my brand Roman. I’m the one who’s supposed to overthink myself into a fire,” Virgil said as he stood up to leave, “Next time leave it to the professionals okay?”

“Gotcha,” Roman said. “You should go back to your beauty sleep, you clearly need it.”

Virgil flipped him off, “Whatever you say Wannabe Human Torch.” Then he sank out leaving Roman alone again.

Roman huffed and looked around at the mess he’d made. The imagination was still a ways away, but as Creativity, Roman had some sway over the landscape regardless. It was much more limited than his limitless power in the imagination, but regrowing some grass was not a problem. He waved his hand, the grass instantly perked up again. Roman turned towards the direction of his castle, he’d done enough outside for one day. Perhaps he could find something else to work on before dinner.

~~~~

There was a knock on Janus’s door and he paused, he didn’t get visitors very often, by design of course, there was a reason he chose to live in the middle of nowhere. 

Janus glanced through the peephole and immediately rolled his eyes, “Remus,” he greeted as he opened the door, “What are you doing here.”

“Just delivering a message!” Remus said as he waltzed into Janus’s house and tossed a wrinkled letter which was dripping with some sort of slime at Janus.

Janus peeled the letter off from where it had stuck to his chest and held it by the least disgusting corner, “Oh... thank... you. Who’s it from?”

“Roman.” Remus said, “I think it’s an invitation or some shit like that.”

Janus glanced up Remus who was inspecting a painting Roman had given to him as a gift a few years back. Janus looked back down at the dripping envelope and peeled it open, despite his best efforts his left glove was covered in the slime like substance in the process. After freeing the letter he took it out with his clean glove.

In Roman’s elegant calligraphy writing it read.

_Prince Roman ‘Creativity’ Sanders the First would like to extend an invitation to the most honorable Janus ‘Deceit’ Sanders to the annual ball being held tomorrow, August the third, at the Castle of Dreams and Wishes. There is no dress code! Dress up as much or as little as you would like._

“Tomorrow?” Janus asked Remus. 

“Yep!” Remus said as he picked up a vase to look at its carvings before shrugging and immediately dropping it. 

Janus summoned a ghost of a hand which effortlessly caught the vase and placed it back on the counter as Janus huffed, “He’s so annoying, I swear. How long have you known?”

Remus hummed, “Uh month and a half?”

“Well I’m certainly not going to go dressed in this.” Janus said as he summoned a mannequin. “Remus if you wouldn’t mind,” Janus flicked a hand and the door swung open.

“Sure thing! If you wanna add a little something something, you know how to get a hold of me!” Remus walked out of the house before turning around and waving at Janus as the ground swallowed him whole.

“I swear if he messed up my garden.” Janus mumbled to himself as he peeled off his gloves and summoned a new, less Remus impacted pair before he began working on his outfit. 

Janus was very good at lying, it was an aspect of what he represented after all. This, of course, allowed him to be incredibly good at detecting lies, and very good at lying to other people, but an absolute fool to think he could lie to himself.

“Really Roman is so obnoxious.” Janus mumbled and his own brain practically rolled its eyes. “I’m only going because it would be rude to turn down this invitation.”

Who did he think he was fooling?

Janus began to summon different sample fabric bases to work from.

“Alright fine whatever,” Janus said. “Maybe I don’t mind Roman.” He said as he selected a fabric. He wasn’t a Creativity, but anyone with any amount of power in the mindscape could construct clothing if they wished, that didn’t mean it would look good by any means, but they could try. 

Roman always made clothes look good, Janus thought as he began to experiment with the fabric. It was truly one of the things Janus found astounding, that his ideas could just come to life like that. As he began to shape the base fabric, Janus wondered if he’d helped make any of the other side's outfits. 

Janus shook his head and tried to concentrate as he summoned all his helper hands. He needed all hands on deck so to speak. Anyway, it didn’t matter to him whether or not Roman had helped the other sides! They were friends, it made sense that he would. He was just curious about what to expect, curious... yeah that was it.

Of course that was a lie, Janus knew he was lying, and he knew that saying that wasn’t going to change his actual opinions, but pretending was easier.

“Anyway,” Janus said, “No one’s getting hurt, besides perhaps my pride if I admit it to myself.”

“What exactly is going to hurt your pride?”

Janus almost jumped as the voice came from seemingly nowhere, and whirled around. Just his luck someone would walk in on him, but that’s what he got for leaving the door open and talking to himself he supposed. 

Logan was standing just outside the house, and Janus faltered slightly. He hadn’t realised Logan knew where he lived. Logan was looking at Janus with a curious look in his eye, and Janus partly wondered if the curiosity was due to the hands which were still working on the dress as Janus walked towards the door, or if it was because of what he said. 

“I don’t know quite what you’re referring to,” Janus said smoothly. “But do come in.”

“Let me remind you,” Logan said. “You were talking to yourself as I walked up, and you said, and I quote, ‘No one’s getting hurt, besides perhaps my pride if I admit it to myself.’”

Janus smiled tightly and nodded, “I did say that didn’t I... well I was just lying to myself, as I do, because I’m Deception, and I was just talking about how if I admit I’m lying it will hurt my _very_ sensitive ego.”

Logan’s gaze was scrutinizing and Janus knew he wasn’t buying that being the full story. “Okay,” Logan eventually said. “Well the actual reason I am here wasn’t for that.”

“You mean you didn’t come just to eavesdrop on my conversations with myself?” 

“No, although perhaps if you practiced closing your door I would not have overheard.” Logan said and Janus could hear a hint of amusement in his voice. 

“Well what can I do for you?” Janus considered adding a quip about hoping Logan had another month late letter, but though better of it since Logan wouldn’t have understood.

“I was hoping you could assist me with preparing dinner, although I see you’re quite busy so I’ll-”

“Nonsense!” Janus said, “I was thinking of coming by to lend a hand soon anyway.”

As he walked out with Logan, he silently cursed himself for forgetting that it was Friday. This invitation couldn’t have come on a worse day.

~~~

It didn’t take anytime for Roman to arrive at the foot of the hill that led up to his castle. Since time was warped in the mindscape, he just willed himself to arrive sooner and not moments later he was there despite how far he walked away from his home. 

Roman headed up the hill, and eventually arrived at a large drawbridge that started to lower as he approached, and by the time he arrived was completely down. After he got off the bridge he ran his fingers over the railing of the stairs as he walked to the iron gate and large wooden doors. The gate rose and the doors swung open on their own volition as he approached.

Roman entered his castle and offhandedly wondered if any of the figments were around. Many of them enjoyed spending time near the imagination, of course the children were outliers, but Roman guessed that was because unlike the other figments they had a home outside the imagination with Patton, so they rarely felt the need to go there.

Of course, some other figments, besides the children, had made homes outside the imagination, however it was much easier to build inside the imagination for anyone who was not Creativity, so most of them liked to stay inside the land of infinite possibilities.

Roman looked around the decorated ballroom, it certainly looked like a nice place to throw a party, hopefully it would turn out that way tomorrow. Roman snapped himself into a ball gown, (not the one he was going to wear tomorrow of course) and summoned a dance partner, who might have happened to be as tall as Janus, but that was purely coincidental. Music came from a piano as it began to play itself, and Roman and his dance partner began to glide across the room.

Roman wasn’t really thinking as his partner led him around the ballroom, his mind was wandering, although not to anything specific yet. As he bounced around the various corners of the ballroom, his thoughts too bounced around his head. Thoughts of what he might still have to prepare, there wasn’t much. Thoughts of dinner later that night. Thoughts of what his guests were going to wear, Roman had helped a few people with summoning outfits. However most people who were able to create using the power of the imagination and mindscape, could summon and make clothing.

As he continued to drift around the room, his brain began to focus on a thought, well to call it a thought was an incomplete understanding of the picture, but the idea itself had been bouncing around in his head for sometime and was now at the front of his brain. 

It was fanciful, an unrealistic thought of a perfect scenario on the night of the ball. As the idea developed, and the details of what people were doing and wearing and saying began to take shape, his excess creative energy began to seep through his skin, causing his fingertips to glow.

_Roman was standing in the middle of the ballroom, fireworks boomed outside, and Roman smiled as the multicolored bursts of light reflected onto the floor._

_Roman heard the clicking of heels on the floor and glanced behind him, Janus stood, looking at Roman with a bemused expression on his face. “Roman, you didn’t join us?”_

_“It seems not.”_

_“And after all that work to get us outside too. What’s keeping you in here?”_

_“There’s a dance left,” Roman said. “It seems we’ve skipped one.”_

_“Oh? And what would that be?”_

_Roman walked up and took Janus’s hand in his, “Ours.”_

Roman snapped to as he suddenly realized his dress had changed from a simple red ball gown to a long black asymmetrical dress which glittered golden as it Roman moved. Roman was glad he didn’t start a fire this time. Although the new dress was certainly more constricted around the legs, it was kinda cute, certainly not something he’d wear to the ball though.

Sure, the idea was unrealistic, Roman thought as he spun out of the dance and walked towards the balcony. That scenario was most probably impossible, Janus would almost definitely not find him first.

Something more realistic then...

Janus spotted him from across the room and asked him to dance, and they danced all night, Janus was the only side who had any hope of keeping up with him in a classical dance anyway.

Roman sighed to himself as he stared up at the sky, imagining Janus coming out here with him at the end of the night, the fireworks going off in the background as they stared into each other's eyes. The tension grew and the music swelled from inside, and…

There was a loud knock on the castle door. Roman jumped slightly as he was pulled from his daydream, and Patton’s voice echoed throughout the castle, “Kiddo are you here?”

Roman stood up straight and began to walk towards the door, his clothes returning back to normal as he walked to the door, he swung it open exaggeratedly, “Patton! Why it feels like I just saw you yesterday! What can I do for you?”

Patton laughed and gestured behind him, “It’s dinner time! You’re still coming right?”

“Absolutely!” Roman said as he bounded out of the castle.

Patton grabbed his hand, and suddenly Roman felt himself being tugged to a new location. Roman gave in and let Patton take him to the community house. FamILY dinner Fridays were always held on neutral ground, each one of their houses were wonderful, but they each had home rule advantage to one side.

Patton came up with the idea of a neutral ground after Logan suggested the idea of having group bonding time, shortly after his debate with Virgil. He said it would be beneficial for them and Thomas for each of them to get to know the other’s better. And although Virgil had been invited every time, he didn’t come to any of them until after he had revealed his name. 

As soon as Patton had offered the idea of a community building, Roman had jumped at the chance to be helpful and had created a building that mirrored parts of Thomas’s home. Of course it had Roman’s spin on it, he wasn’t just going to copy and paste Thomas’s house into the imagination, because how boring would that have been to create! But it was still a neutral place.

Roman glanced around at the Sides in the building he created. Virgil was sitting at his normal place with his knees to his chest as he scrolled on his phone. Logan was cooking something with the help of Janus, who was also wrangling Remus away from the food. Roman watched the way Janus moved, he was so fluid with every motion, it was like he was moving through water.

Patton tried to skip into the kitchen but Janus immediately stopped him, “Oh no I am not going to have two trainwrecks in this kitchen thank you very much.”

“Hey, I’m good at cooking!” Patton protested.

Janus raised an eyebrow, “You’re as good as _Thomas_ at cooking. And seeing as you’ve burnt water before, and as we are _five minutes from dinner_ , I think it’s an _excellent_ idea for you to get involved.”

Remus, taking advantage of Janus being distracted, started to edge his way over towards the food.

One of Janus’s hands grabbed the collar of Remus’s shirt, “Nuh uh. We’re not doing this.” Janus looked over at Roman who immediately flicked his eyes away, embarrassed that he’d been caught staring. 

Janus just smiled though, “You know what, Roman?” Roman looked back over, as Janus shoved Remus towards him slightly, “would you be a darling and take your miscreant brother out of the kitchen before he burns something?”

Roman wasn’t exactly sure what Janus said, he’d caught a few words, but he’d mostly shorted out after Janus said darling, but Janus tipped his head towards Remus and Roman assumed he knew what Janus meant.

“Of course!” Roman boomed, “Remus, come now! We don’t want to set anything on fire!”

Virgil snorted and Roman turned around as Remus snapped himself out of the kitchen, reappearing hanging upside down on the chandelier.

“What’s so funny?” Roman questioned.

“Yes, do tell!” Remus said. “We’re _dying_ to know!” As he said that his skin began to rot and his skeleton began to expose itself.

Virgil wrinkled up his nose, “Really dude? Right above the dinner plates?” Virgil sighed, “Whatever. I just thought it was ironic that Roman was chastising you about fire. That’s it.”

Remus’s skin was back to normal as he looked over at Roman with a gleam in his eyes, “Arson? Did you do arson?”

Roman waved his hand dismissively, “Arson is a strong word. It was more temporary wildlife damage.”

This caught both Janus’s and Logan’s attention. “Roman tell me you did not attempt to burn down the forest.” Logan said. “I have a lot of ongoing experiments which would not withstand fire damage.”

“I _live_ in there!” Janus said incredulously.

“Yes I’m aware, and I didn’t!” Roman said, “I would never burn down the forest!”

“Boring.” Remus muttered under his breath.

“ _Now_ if you would allow me to finish, you would see it was an accident that resulted in nothing more than a patch of burnt grass, which I fixed!”

Janus still looked unconvinced and was clearly on edge, but he rolled his eyes and turned back to the food. 

“How’d it happen?” Patton asked.

“A burst of stray creative energy?”

Remus narrowed his eyes and swung himself off the chandelier, “What were you thinking of? It may have been stray, but it’s not random, and I doubt _you_ were thinking of setting the place a blaze!”

Roman opened his mouth slightly before he closed it and looked away, “Oh, I don’t remember.”

Roman swore he heard Janus scoff in the other room, but Remus just shrugged, “I thought maybe you’d thought of something spicy for once!”

“Speaking of spicy.” Logan said as he walked in with a large dish, he was followed by Janus who was holding several other pans. “Dinner’s ready.”

~~~~

Janus liked to think he had pretty good timing. Well some might say his timing was bad but that was just because they were wrong, for his purposes he was always on time. 

So Janus didn’t mention the letter throughout dinner at all. He didn’t bring up the ball either. He noticed Roman shooting Remus looks throughout dinner and he wondered if he was worried Remus hadn’t fulfilled whatever promise he gave to Roman. 

During cleaning up, when everything was winding down was when he struck. He sat on the counter beside the sink and waited for Roman, who was washing the dishes, to acknowledge him.

“Hey Janus,” Roman said with a smile. “Can I do something for you?”

Janus ignored the way his heart skipped when Roman smiled at him and pushed on, “Why yes, I have come into the possession of a particularly peculiar item and I was wondering if you could identify it for me.”

Roman nodded, “Why of course! I’m honored you’d ask me, this seems more Logan’s territory but I can give it a shot!”

Janus summoned the slimy envelope and held it out to Roman who visibly recoiled. “This is it. Quite interesting, no? What’s even more interesting was what was inside.”

Janus summoned the letter and Roman’s face immediately dawned with realization. “Oh, that. I’m glad Remus got it to you! And it’s at least mostly in one piece?”

Janus smiled, “Yes it’s quite an accomplishment for Remus. One thing about it did bother me though.”

“What would that be?” Roman asked.

“The date, I mean you only gave me a day’s warning. Really Roman, if you wanted to be the best dressed, there are some _actually_ effective ways to do that.”

Roman scoffed, “If I _wanted_ to be the best dressed? My dear serpentine side, I am and will always be the best dressed, even if you have years to prepare.”

“Be careful Roman,” Janus cooed. “That almost sounded like a challenge.”

“And what if it was?” 

Janus tipped his hat to Roman, “Then I would say see you tomorrow,” Janus hopped off the counter. His hand brushed Roman’s side as he whispered, “Prince Roman.”

Once Janus was out of sight of Roman he sank out, he arrived at his house and immediately collapsed against the wall in a fit of near hysterical laughter, “Shit-” Janus said as he pressed a hand against his chest where his heart was trying to burst out from. Janus exhaled slowly, “Oh I can’t believe I did that.” 

Roman’s voice rang in his head, ‘My dear serpentine side.’

My dear serpentine side. _My_...

Janus pressed a hand against his face, “Ugh, he didn’t mean it like that.” 

~~~~

Janus walked out after thoroughly flustering Roman, and Roman blew out a breath, “Oh my god…” he whispered to himself, “He’s trying to kill me.”

“Who’s trying to kill you?” Remus chirped.

Roman shrieked and turned around sharply, “Remus! You can’t just appear like that! What's your deal?”

“Deal? I don’t gamble! Maybe I should, do you think I could get a group together for strip poker?”

“No, I mean maybe. No! No! Nevermind, what do you want?” 

“Well I wanted to know what that was with Jan, but then I heard you talking about murder, and that seemed more interesting!”

“There was no murder,” Roman said dismissively. “We were simply talking about tomorrow.”

“And there was still no murder?” Remus tsked, “Unrealistic, Jan’s definitely gonna kill you in the outfit department, and I’m always up for murder.”

Roman flicked some water at Remus, “You are not killing anyone tomorrow. It’s going to be a nice night.” He said, completely ignoring the first part of the sentence, it was partly true in a way, Roman was going to die when he saw whatever wonderful outfit Janus had thrown together for the ball.

The water hit him and Remus pretended to be mortally wounded by the drips of water. “You’ve killed me!” Remus screeched, “There was a murder after all!”

Roman rolled his eyes as he dried his hands off, “You know what, if you want we can duel tonight, if you promise to be _relatively_ civil tomorrow.”

Remus sat up and grinned as he summoned his morning star, “Deal! But we’re doing it on my side this time.”

“I made a battle ground!” Roman protested.

“I can too!” Remus put two fingers on either side of his head and closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them and leaping to his feet, “All done! Now come look!” 

Roman snorted, “Okay fine.” He extended an arm which Remus grabbed, “Are you going to sink out or disappear?”

“I don’t know how to sink out with another person! Also disappearing is just better and more fun!”

Roman groaned as he closed his eyes. “After I do this, you better not cheat.”

Roman felt a sudden jolt and he was brought down to his hands and knees. His head was spinning and Roman didn’t even want to consider opening his eyes for several seconds.

“You gonna puke?” Remus asked. There was a slight amount of concern in his voice but most of it was just interest in the situation. 

Roman opened his eyes slowly and looked up at Remus, “No, I am not going to ‘puke’ thank you very much.”

Remus looked slightly disappointed as he shrugged, “Aw… well do you like it?”

Roman sat back on his feet, ignoring his spinning head, “Oh wow.”

The battle field was grand. It was a bit more… phallic than Roman would have gone in places, but it was also intricate, and Roman found himself amazed that Remus had created it in only a few seconds.

On each side of a large battle field, there were two large identical towers where they’d start, each had a rickety watch tower that was pushed out from the main part of the building, and Roman could see a spiral staircase heading up the tower. In between the two towers was a tangled dark forest, which had large roots sticking out from the ground and briars wrapped around the trees. None of the trees had leaves, instead the branches weaved together to create an uneven and unstable canopy. 

“Is that good?” Remus asked. 

“Yeah of course it’s good. This is awesome!” Roman said as he walked up to one of the trees and admired the way the branches curved.

Remus grinned, “Okay so standard rules?”

“Yep.” Roman said, “Same safeword?”

Remus giggled, “I’m so gonna make you say it this time!”

Roman rolled his eyes, “Oh you can try. Do you want to do the countdown?”

“Yeah I got it!” Remus waved, “see you when I’m kicking your ass!”

“You wish!” Roman replied, then Remus was gone.

Roman followed suit and sank out, glad to be able to sink out, it was far more comfortable.

Roman arrived in his tower and after a few seconds Remus’s voice boomed across the field, “5...4…3...2...1… Good luck~”

Roman immediately vaulted out of the tower window and his shoes grew wings and caught him before he hit the ground. Roman sprinted towards the forest, summoning both a sword and shield, as he counted in his head. 

6…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Roman had just made it to the edge of the forest when like clockwork there was the boom of the tower exploding behind him. He was blasted forward slightly, but like second nature Roman made the sword and shield disappear as he rolled the momentum from the blast out. As soon as he was to his feet again the sword and shield were back in his hands. 

Roman looked through the dense forest, and summoned an orb of light and cast it in. 

It illuminated everything within Roman’s eyesight, which was in fairness limited by the trees significantly, Roman lifted off the ground slightly and with as much awareness as one could have, began to move silently through the forest with the guidance of the light.

“Roman~” Remus’s voice echoed throughout the thicket, “Did the tower get you this time?”

Roman rolled his eyes before blowing his voice into his hand and throwing it away from him. He replied, his voice sounding distant, even to him. “No of course it didn’t.”

“Well that’s just too bad.”

Roman called his voice back and looked around, something was wrong. Remus sounded a bit too calm.

There was a moment of silence.

Roman was turning around, he had eyes all around him. It was too quiet. Then he heard a laugh, and his blood ran cold. 

Roman threw his shield above him and braced for impact just in time as the morning star came down hard from above. Roman was thrown to the ground by the impact, but at least he hadn’t taken it in the head.

“Peek-a boo!” Remus cackled as he swung his morning star towards Roman again. Remus had taken a different approach to seeing in the forest, his veins were admitting a sickly green glow and his eyes were neon pink and green, swirling in a spiral. 

As Roman landed on the ground, his sword had shrunk to the size of a throwing dagger which he threw directly at one of Remus’s eyes before scrambling to his feet.

Roman had excellent aim, however one of the branches from a nearby tree grew out and the knife bounced off it, harmless.

“Oh is that the best you can do?” Remus cooed as he subtly closed ground with Roman. “I almost feel bad at how easily I’m going to _beat_ you!” As Remus said beat, he began to swing his morning star at Roman again.

Roman saw it coming though, he’d had made it too obvious, and Roman easily side stepped it, and used Remus’s own force against him to pull him to the ground. Before Remus could react, Roman drove his sword deep into Remus’s stomach.

Roman expected it to be over, sure it would have been the fastest match they had ever done, but Remus had just been impaled. However Remus just spit some blood onto the ground as he began to laugh. Roman watched in horror as Remus’s skin began to swallow the sword until the only evidence he had ever been stabbed was the cut in his clothing.

Remus pulled something from his pocket and threw it on the ground. The ground began to burn through Roman’s feet as a circle of roiling fire enveloped the ground. Roman hissed and jumped onto the air, the wings on his shoes kept him hovering a few inches off the air as the soles of his feet stung.

Remus was still firmly planted on the ground and if he could feel the heat, he was unbothered.

Roman looked around, he didn’t want to get close, but clearly he couldn’t throw anything, so perhaps he didn’t have much of a choice. Roman summoned a sharper, bigger sword than he used last time and closed ground with Remus, while he still hovered slightly off the ground. 

His sword clashed with Remus’s weapon and sparks shot from the weapons as they collided. Roman managed to get the sword in a position so he could momentarily let go with his right hand. Roman summoned a second weapon, a short sword, and slashed it across Remus’s stomach. 

Remus stumbled back, “Oh feisty!”

Remus swung at him, but his morning star was much slower compared to Roman’s swords, so Roman just closed ground with him and slashed him with his sword again.

Roman could tell Remus was trying to form a plan, and probably trying to figure out some quicker weapon to summon. Roman did his best to not give Remus any room to think as he made a wall of arrows appear behind Remus as he slashed him successfully with his sword again. As soon as he pulled away, the arrows shot fast and hard. Remus gasped, clearly taken aback by the sudden attack from behind, and was forced to a knee.

Remus huffed as he stumbled back to his feet, he usually looked a bit disheveled, but the barrage of arrows had clearly taken a lot out of him. Roman was sure he almost had him, especially since he felt a lot better than Remus looked.

Remus suddenly got a look in his eyes which sent chills down Roman’s spine, “I feel like mixing things up, what about you?” With a snap of his fingers the entire forest turned pitch black. 

Roman screamed before quickly trying to summon a light source, but it didn’t seem to do anything against the impenetrable inky darkness.

Roman cursed under his breath and he flicked a hand towards the canopy to try and open a gap to escape. Remus‘s morning star collided with his leg, which immediately buckled, but a perfect square had already dissolved from the canopy, making just enough light seep into the forest for Roman to see where to go.

Roman didn’t need to stand to fly, so he began to escape up as he heard Remus’s laughter slowed, “What Roman, can you not handle a little darkness?”

Roman arrived on the top of the trees but didn’t land for several reasons: his leg was injured and Remus seemed to have some control over the trees. Roman didn’t want to take the chance of being trapped. Roman summoned a bow and arrow, fully prepared to ambush Remus when he came through the hole.

There were several seconds of silence, far too many. Roman almost wondered if something was wrong, and he had to stop himself from peeking over the edge. 

Out of nowhere, Remus shot through the canopy, creating a new, Remus sized whole to Roman’s left. 

Roman took three shots at Remus; all three hit. Roman wondered slightly to himself how Remus was still going. Then Remus began to shoot towards him at an alarming rate, and Roman suddenly noticed he had given himself tentacles which were pressed to his sides to help with aerodynamics.

Roman summoned his sword, but too slowly, as Remus scooped him off the ground.

His sword fell onto the tree tops and wedged itself in a few branches as Roman dropped it.

“Put me down!” Roman said.

Suddenly from all sides it felt like knives or very sharp spikes were stabbing into his skin. As the tentacles squeezed tighter, they sunk deeper. His entire torso and his arms were all being punctured. Roman felt light headed. 

“Put you down?” Remus said, “If you insist!”

The tentacles let go, and as they did, the spikes slowly began to withdraw themselves from Roman’s chest. For a split second after they let go Roman was just hanging, looking at the ground because there was nowhere else to go, all signs led to down. As Roman began to fall he felt the spikes in his back all come out at once in a sharp stabbing pain, as they couldn’t hold his weight for any longer than a second he was suspended after Remus let go.

Painful, but impressive.

Roman frantically attempted to slow his fall but his brain couldn’t focus on anything but the stabbing pain from his torso, so he hit the ground hard.

Roman landed on his side and he gasped as something inside him cracked. Roman tried to get up but he couldn’t move, the only thing that filled his brain was agony as he lay there, his blood making the otherwise dry branches sticky with moisture. 

“Nacarat-” Roman gasped, unsure if Remus would be close enough to hear him. It didn’t matter though because as the safe word was uttered fireworks went off signaling surrender.

“Yes!” Roman heard from the sky, “I can’t believe that worked!” Remus landed next to him and glanced down, “bet it hurts like hell though.”

Roman did his best to glare at Remus who, although was definitely in better shape than him, was pretty beat up too. “Yeah it hurts. Would you mind helping me out with that?”

Remus picked Roman up, “oh sure!” Roman had no time to brace himself this time as he was instantly teleported to the steps of his castle. 

His injuries were gone, as were Remus’s. They were temporary wounds which fortunately only existed for an hour within the battle ground that they were inflicted in. Although Roman was physically fine again, he was very glad he was not standing, as his head spun from the instant teleportation.

Remus plopped him on the steps before sitting down next to him, “That was so much fun!”

Roman looked over at him fondly, “Yeah we should do this more often. I really thought I had you though.”

“Oh yeah that was a last ditch effort. I had no clue that would work! I thought you might have enchanted your skin against puncture wounds or some fantasy shit like that.”

“No it was very impressive.” Roman said, “I was at almost peak performance and you knocked me out of commission just like that.” Roman snapped his fingers.

Remus grinned, “You just gotta get a little more creative.”

Roman rolled his eyes, “Oh you were nearly down.”

“You don’t know that!” 

“You literally just told me!” 

“Semantics.” Remus said before standing up and stretching, “Okay! I’m gonna make sure Janus doesn’t need any help with his outfit!”

“You better not make it too good.” Roman said.

“Why, you worried Jan’s gonna steal the stage?”

“That’s not it.” Roman said, but Remus just laughed.

“Sure it isn’t. Bye dickhead!”

“See ya loser!”

Remus disappeared into thin air, and Roman stayed sitting on the stairs of his castle for several seconds before standing up and walking inside.

~~~

Janus had just finished making a base he was happy with when there was a knock at his door. Janus groaned, “What is it now?”

“Oh someone’s grouchy!” Remus said as he jumped onto Janus’s counter. “Need some help?”

Janus looked over his dress, it was bare bones at best. “I mean I’ve got it completely under control, but if you must.”

Remus grinned and flicked his hand towards the dress. Layers of fabrics started appearing and folding and attaching themselves to the dress.

“Chill—” Remus said, “I’m gonna make you look hot as fuck.”

Janus looked at the dress as a piece of yellow fabric began to fold itself up the left side of the dress. “Fine. I trust you.”

Remus grinned, “Oh I don’t know about that! You should never get too comfortable around me!”

Janus shrugged, “I’ll take my chances.” He settled down on his couch, “So Remus, what have you been doing?”

“Beating Roman up!”

“Just a normal Friday then.”

Then there was another knock on Janus’s door.

“Why and how is everyone visiting me today?” Janus mumbled under his breath. “Come in?”

The door swung open, Logan and Virgil were on his doorstep.

Janus threw his arms up exasperatedly, “What is the point of living in the middle of nowhere if you all just figure out where it is?”

Logan at least had the courtesy to look sheepish, “My apologies, however it is to my understanding that your house moves, and I knew that Virgil might be able to bring me here.”

Virgil, who had invited himself in, and was inspecting the dress nodded, “Yeah... don’t worry I didn’t tell him how to find it again.”

“Then how did you find it the first time?” Janus asked.

“Ah I asked Remus.”

Janus shot a dirty look to Remus, “I’m going to change the movement pattern if you just bring people here.”

Remus just shrugged, “He’s very convincing.”

“Falsehood,” Logan interrupted. “I just asked and you immediately brought me.”

“I didn’t say it took much!”

Virgil snorted, “Yeah it wouldn’t.”

“What’s that emo?”

“I said-!” The group began to engage in a more aggressive conversation of sorts. It was still friendly, but it just got louder and people began to talk over each other as they picked fun at one another.

Janus ran his hands over his face, he was going to go crazy if they didn’t stop talking over each other and Logan still needed to tell him why he was here. Janus flicked his hand and all three of them were promptly silenced. 

“Ah the sweet sound of quiet,” Janus said as he focused on keeping Remus quiet, it was quite the challenge to shut the Duke up. “Now Logan,” Janus said as he released his hold on Logan. “Why did you come here?”

Logan nodded, “I came to apologize for eavesdropping earlier, and offer my assistance with your outfit, however it seems you have that covered.”

Janus paused momentarily, “there’s not much you could do to help with the actual construction of the outfit... but... there is one thing you could assist me with if you wished to be helpful.”

“Name it.”

Janus beckoned Logan over and began to whisper his request, as much as he trusted Remus and Virgil, they either couldn’t or wouldn’t keep it a secret, and that just would not do.

~~~

Roman headed towards his bedroom, he passed by a room which had a crackling fireplace. Roman paused momentarily before hearing the sounds of soft talking between a few people and deciding to walk in. 

Roman walked in and as he grew closer to the fireplace he could see three people, Sleep, September and October, or Remy, Seth, and Toby as the Fandom had dubbed them. Remy was leaning against the wall by the fireplace, and was talking to Seth and Toby who were playing chess while they sat on the couches.

“Hello,” Roman greeted his unexpected guests, who immediately turned around. “I wasn’t expecting to see anyone here this time of night-” 

“It’s only eight?” Remy said.

Roman continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “BUT I’m certainly glad to see you all!” Roman sat down on an armchair and looked over at what Seth and Toby were doing. “Who’s winning?”

”I am _of course_ ,” Toby said, “But I’m really surprised at how well Seth’s holding his own, you know because of my untouchable intellect?” 

Seth was stifling laughter as he moved one of his pieces, “I’m pretty sure I’ve got you three moves to checkmate but okay. Your turn.”

Toby floundered slightly as he stared at the board, “No way— I mean I meant to do that.”

Seth snorted, “Sure you did.”

“I did! It’s all part of my master plan!”

Roman left them to their game and sat down next to Remy. Roman hummed as the heat from the fireplace rushed over him. “I see why you chose to sit over here, it’s nice.”

Remy nodded before glancing over at Roman, “Yeah, the warmth is really good for getting some sleep.” Remy tipped his thermos of something, probably coffee if Roman knew anything about Remy, towards Roman. “Maybe you should take advantage of that.”

Roman yawned, “Mmm… Maybe.”

“What did you even do to get tired this early?”

“I lost a duel with Remus?”

“If you fall asleep Roman, we could bring you to your room!” Seth said, “Ya know if you don’t want to sleep on the floor? Checkmate.” 

Toby groaned, “Come on man, how do you do that!” 

“That’s very kind of you,” Roman said as his eyes began to drift closed. “But I assure you, I won’t fall asleep. I’m not even tired!”

“ _Sure_ you aren’t,” Toby muttered and Seth stifled a laugh. 

Remy rolled his eyes, “Well if you aren’t tired, would you like me to help you? You need your beauty sleep for tomorrow after all.”

Roman laughed slightly, “On a second consideration, I think I can manage something on my own, waking up is ten times harder when you help.”

Remy shrugged, “Suit yourself.”

Roman leant himself against one of the chairs and immediately his eyelids felt heavy. As Roman began to drift off to sleep, he felt something soft and warm drape over his legs before he completely lost consciousness.

Roman woke up the next day as sunlight peeked through his curtains and birds chirped outside. 

Roman sat up and skipped down the spiral staircase that led down the tower that his bedroom was in with renewed energy as he remembered what was happening later that day. He peeked into the room he had been in last night and smiled slightly when he saw Remy curled up on one of the couches. Toby and Seth were both gone, presumably to their rooms in the castle or to their homes in the imagination, but Remy looked like he had crashed. Roman walked over and pulled the blanket that had slipped off of him back on before turning off the lights and walking out of the room.

To get to the kitchen, Roman had to pass through the ballroom which was decorated for the night’s festivities. Roman paused as he passed through to admire his handy work. The ballroom in the castle was all done up for the party, candle lit chandeliers hung from the ceiling, burning with the infinite power of the imagination which lived just next door. The center of the large room was clear for dancing and general socialization, and the floor was spotless. Around the perimeter were several tables each with candles of their own as well as beautiful bouquets of flowers that resembled the fireworks Roman had planned for when the sun went down. 

Several balconies overlooked where the party was going to be and Roman admired the plants that hung down from them, which made the room alive. 

Roman heard a note, B if he was not mistaken. Roman glanced around and saw Logan fiddling with the grand piano. 

“Logan!” Roman said as he walked towards him. “You’re here rather early.”

“It’s nine o’clock, I’d hardly call that early.” Logan said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh pish posh, early late, it’s all the same!” Roman pointed at the piano, “I didn’t know you played?”

Logan looked down, “Piano? Oh I don’t.”

Roman hummed, “Well I do! Budge up!”

Logan moved down the bench and Roman sat next to him, he played a quick scale before being to improve a slow piece, he wasn’t warmed up, so there was certainly no need to do anything rash.

“We should play sometime!” Roman said, “I’m not sure how we haven’t done it before.”

“Perhaps we could make it a group activity,” Logan suggested. “I believe we all play instruments separate to those Thomas knows, and even if I’m incorrect, we can all sing and have Thomas’s natural affinity for music, so it might be nice to do something as a group.”

“Everyone plays an instrument?” Roman asked, “How come I didn’t know that?”

Logan shrugged, “Well Remus, like yourself, plays several different instruments, however drums is his favorite. Virgil likes the bass although he also can play the electric guitar.” Logan smiled, “He played acoustic for a while, but he said it didn’t fit his aesthetic... And um I believe Patton plays the tuba, and I of course play the violin.”

“What about Janus?” Roman asked.

“Right, of course, I believe he plays the oboe, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he knew how to play other instruments as well, he is quite good at hiding things.”

Roman sighed wistfully, “He is... He’s so talented.”

Logan raised an eyebrow, “Yes quite... is there something specific you’re referring to?”

Roman scoffed, “Is there something specific. Specs, have you looked at him? I mean besides his very obvious...” Roman trailed off and stared off into space, “... I mean there’s his clothes,” Roman mumbled dreamily, “Remus told me he made them completely himself. I mean his eyes too, gods, they are just so beautiful, the way they sparkle when he’s talking about that philosophy stuff.” Roman sighed, “It’s like looking into the stars themselves.”

Logan smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, “Oh.”

“And I know,” Roman continued, “I have this playful rivalry thing with him, but...” Roman got up from the bench and began to pace, “He’s just so amazing! Why did I ever seriously want to work against him? Oh I really hope he doesn’t think it’s serious now.”

“He certainly seems to be the object of your affection.”

“I guess that’s one way of putting it,” Roman said as he bounced excitedly from foot to foot, “you could also say, I’m in deep, head over heels, under his spell, smitten, infatuated, enamoured.” Roman stopped pacing momentarily as a thought dawned on him, “and I’m going to tell him tonight.”

Logan stood up sharply, his hand accidentally colliding with the piano, creating a loud dissonant sound.

Roman looked over sharply and Logan snapped his hand away and composed himself by adjusting his tie, “My... apologies, I am being summoned and it startled me.”

“How?” Roman asked, trying to imagine how the gentle tugging of being summoned could surprise someone.

“Janus is summoning me.”

“Oh. _Oh_!” Roman paused, “Well go duh, but you can’t say a word! I reserve the right to lose all my vast amounts of courage and not tell him!”

Logan chuckled as he began to sink out, “I won’t say a word.”

Roman took a breath as Logan disappeared and slowly began to go over to the kitchen.

After he ate, Roman found himself making his way into the imagination, the preparations for that evening were complete so what else would he do? Roman wandered around, his thoughts drifting ever closer towards Janus, and how he could tell him. It had to be extravagant, no way around that one, Janus might even appreciate a grand gesture unlike the Debbie Downers on Valentine’s Day.

Roman didn’t notice how he was beginning to approach the neutral zone in between the two sides of the imagination, he didn’t notice the lighting darkening slightly or the sky turning ashy. If he had been paying attention he would have noticed the forest growing more unkempt, but as he had experienced the full extent of Remus’s forestry and his side of the imagination recently, it all went unnoticed as Roman continued to brainstorm.

~~~

Janus appeared at the edge of the imagination and dropped his disguise as he walked in. He only had to walk a couple of steps before the forest began to change into a canopy of woven dead branches that covered the sky. He sat down against a familiar tree and summoned a block of wood and a knife, as he got comfortable the snakes that lived there began to peak themselves out and coil and slip over his legs.

Janus twirled his knife as he tried to digest what he’d just heard. He hadn’t meant to hear that, he was just going to look at Roman’s outfit, see what he was up against. But... Could Roman have known it wasn’t Logan? Did he know it was him instead? Was this some sick prank Remus put Roman up to? It was possible. But did Remus even know? No if he knew everyone would know. He was way worse than Roman at keeping a secret, he was also pretty bad at detecting secrets. And Janus most certainly hadn’t told him outright. 

As Janus took a chunk out of the wood he mumbled something which sounded a bit like ‘Fucking Roman with his perfect eyebrows messing with him.’ 

The only person who might know about his... feelings... was Logan, he was the most perceptive of the other sides, or perhaps Patton, feelings were his area of expertise after all, but neither of them would tell... or at least they would try not to tell Roman, right? Maybe not, they were closer to Roman after all. It was probably just a joke. 

Janus huffed, “Who does he think he is. Playing with my emotions.”

One of the snakes curled around his arm and squeezed slightly, Janus laughed, “I’m not actually upset but thank you. I’m just... confused.”

Janus turned back to the block of wood and scraped a much more controlled segment off as he dwelled in his own thoughts. He didn’t want to take out his 

emotions too much on the carving, he’d just end up with a pile of wood chips, although maybe that was what he needed. Janus very slowly began to dull the corners as he tried to decide what he was going to do about Roman. He couldn’t avoid him forever after all.

After a while of the only sounds being the far off cawing of crows and the creaking of branches rubbing against each other, it was peaceful. That was until an eruption of noises came from the snakes that surrounded him. It started with a couple of hisses, then they were all hissing and then the rattlesnakes were joining in the fun too.

Janus looked up and around to see what was causing all the fuss. Like his house, it wasn’t easy to get into the corner of the imagination he was currently in, and if you didn’t know the way it was nearly impossible. Of course Remus had helped him set it up years ago, but whether or not he remembered doing that was up for debate. Anyway the snakes didn’t respond like that to-

Janus locked eyes with Roman.

Oh.

Oh _no_.

Janus set down the wood and snapped the knife closed as he stood up. 

“Roman.” Janus said carefully, “I wasn’t expecting company.”

Roman was staring at the snakes and although he seemed to know Janus was there, he was more absorbed with keeping track of them all than looking at Janus. Janus couldn’t decide if that was a good sign or not.

“I-I was just passing by!” Roman said quickly as he finally broke eye contact with the herd of snakes and glanced around, “What is this place? It looks a bit like the battlefield Remus made.”

“I go here to think.” Janus said as he folded his arms. “Remus helped make it.”

Roman looked at one of the snakes that was slowly encroaching on his personal space, “Why?”

Janus rolled his eyes and pretended to misunderstand the question, “I’m not as good at creating as he is? Remus summoned those snakes too, but don’t worry, they’ve never bitten me.”

“Very comforting,” Roman said as he shifted his weight even further back away from the snakes, “but I meant more why are you here now? Also how did you get here?”

Janus considered Roman’s questions for a second, it seemed like he truly didn’t know. “One of the side entrances and because I wanted to. Is it so hard to believe that I have hobbies outside of my role as a side?”

“No it isn’t... Wait!” Roman frowned at Janus, “Logan said you were summoning him?”

Janus raised an eyebrow, “I did momentarily.” He said before deflecting, “Why were you speaking to Logan so early in the morning?”

“See that’s what I said!” Roman huffed, “but he was all like Roman it’s nine o’clock why aren’t you more productive with your time?” Roman rolled his eyes, “Well he didn’t really say that but I could feel the silent judgement.”

“The nerve.” 

“I know right!?” 

Janus snorted and brought his hand up to partially conceal his smile. 

Roman looked at Janus with a fond smile before he shook his head and looked back at where Janus had been whittling, “I didn’t know you knew how to do that.”

Janus toyed with a fold in his glove as he said, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me Roman.”

“But of course! It’s in your nature.” Roman said, and Janus looked him over curiously. “May I ask you a question though?”

“You may ask.” 

It didn’t go unnoticed to Roman how Janus didn’t refer to the truthfulness of his answer. “What were you carving?” Roman asked as he gestured to the block of wood.

Janus regarded Roman for a moment, there was no harm in showing him, he hadn’t actually carved anything after all. Janus picked up the wood and tossed it over to Roman who caught it effortlessly. “I didn’t get very far.”

Roman turned the block over in his hands. “But what was it going to be? Or what will it be?”

Janus shrugged, “If you find out, do tell me. I didn’t go in with a very concrete plan, more a mix of thoughts and feelings I wanted to take out. Perhaps it was going to be nothing more than wood chips although that would be a little disappointing.”

Roman nodded and tossed the block back, Janus fumbled with it before getting a solid hold of it and regaining his composure. “Maybe,” Roman said, “of course only if you wanted to, you have every right to say no, but if you wanted to, maybe you could show me how you do it sometime, whittling that is. I’ve never attempted it before and it seems like a very interesting art form...”

Janus nodded as he sat down among his snakes again, “Why not. Do you have anything to do right now?.”

“That’s okay I-” Roman frowned as Janus’s words sunk in, “Wait you said yes.”

Janus nodded as he flicked his knife open and began to carve another chunk off the wood, “Mm-hm.”

“Oh.” Roman hesitantly sat down next to Janus, he was forced to sit shoulder to shoulder with him as the snakes were not exactly making a lot of room. 

Janus’s heart began to beat out of his chest as Roman sat literally so they were touching. “You need gloves before I give you a knife.” Janus said as he attempted to ignore the fact that this was Roman and Roman was touching him, and Roman was warm, and Roman might actually like him.

Roman glanced down at Janus’s gloves, they were the same yellow as normal, but they were much thicker. “Why?” Roman asked, “We can just vanish the injuries.”

Janus clicked his tongue, “Safety first Roman! Anyway it’s not like you’re impervious to pain just because you can vanish an injury.” 

“I know that quite well.” Roman said as he winced. He snapped his fingers and a pair of red gloves, similar to Janus's, appeared on Roman’s hands. “Alright! What’s next?”

Janus handed Roman a knife and a block of wood. “Now you carve something.”

Janus began to show Roman the proper hand positions, which involved more contact and they were even closer now and was Roman smiling? Janus would be the first to admit that he rushed through teaching him the basics, Roman was Creativity, he should be able to figure it out. 

“I’ll try this lil guy!” Roman said as Janus instructed him to pick something to carve. Roman gently picked up a small snake, it began to curl around his wrist and looked quite at home.

Janus glanced over and smiled, “her name’s Eris.”

“Eris, what a lovely name for a lovely little beast!” Roman glanced around at the dozens of snakes, “Do they all have names?”

Janus laughed, “I mean possibly, but I know I don’t remember all of them, and it’s very likely I’ve named some of them more than once, I’ve been coming here since the middle school era.” 

Roman hummed and began to carve the basic structure of the snake out.

“So... how _did_ you get here?” Janus asked.

“I just stumbled into it,” Roman said. “Truly.”

“That’s not an easy task. Sometimes I can’t find this place even if I’m looking.” Janus mumbled before turning back to his carving.

Roman began to struggle with the knife, and after a few seconds Janus slipped one of his hands over Roman’s. “You’re trying to brute force it.” Janus said quietly. “Your problem is the angle not how much force you’re putting in. The knife’s sharp enough not to need much pressure.”

Janus readjusted the knife position and guided Roman though the first few strokes, “You of all people should know that life needs a little finesse sometimes.” 

“Right.” Roman said, as he bit his lip and ignored the heat rushing to his ears. “Finesse.” 

About an hour of struggling later, Roman finally had something that vaguely resembled a snake. Roman stood up and stretched, “Thank you for the lesson. See you tonight?”

Janus looked up, “I’m not one to turn down an invitation.”

Roman sank out and Janus turned his half finished carving over in his hands, if he didn’t know any better he’d say it looked an awful lot like Roman’s emblem. Janus sighed as a smile crept onto his face. Yes, he was a fool for falling for Roman, but perhaps there was a chance Roman was a fool too.

~~~

Roman stood in front of grand doors into the castle, it was time, this was it. He took a breath before making a gesture with his hands to open the doors.

Logan was the first to arrive as he arrived not thirty seconds after the door opened. 

“Specs!” Roman greeted as Logan arrived, “Punctual as always.”

“I seem to be the only one with functioning time management skills.” Logan commented.

“I’ll toast to that!” Roman scanned Logan’s outfit which he had helped Logan create. It consisted of an asymmetrical dark blue skirt which dragged on the floor behind him. He had a collared black shirt on and an identically colored waistcoat with a flowery patterned tie. “You clean up nicely.” Roman said.

Logan sighed, “This is hardly that much of a divergence from my normal attire.”

“Oh but you’re wearing something I created so you’re instantly so much better dressed!”

Logan rolled his eyes as Patton and Virgil walked up. In the distance, Roman could see some of the figments arriving, although he knew many of them would come from the imagination entrance.

“Hi Roman!” Patton chirped. 

There had been no dress code, Roman just wanted people to have fun, so he was unsurprised when Patted turned up wearing a fluffy multi colored layered skirt, and Virgil showed up in an outfit too edgy for Roman to even fathom creating. 

“Well welcome to the ball all my honorary guests and you emo.”

Virgil snorted, “You said have fun with our clothes Princey, when else am I going to get to wear all of this at the same time?” He said gesturing to his outfit. 

Roman actually really liked Virgil’s outfit, as edgy as it was, it all really went together and he liked how the skirt matched his usual hoodie patches. The only thing that made Roman a little annoyed was he had an eight inch stiletto heel on for the sole purpose of being tall but since Virgil had worn knee high combat boots he was still shorter than Virgil. He wasn’t really annoyed though, he’d just wanted to be taller than Virgil for once.

Most of the people had arrived by the time Janus walked up, Roman had waited at the door for this moment, determined to greet him when he arrived, he had said he was coming after all.

Roman tried not to let his jaw hit the floor as Janus arrived, although the smug look on Janus’s face clearly told him it hadn’t worked. Janus was wearing a pale yellow floor length dress with exaggerated folds from the waist of the dress, and see through flowy sleeves. There were yellow flowers which trailed down the folds on the left side and around the base of his dress. 

Roman frankly couldn’t believe he’d done that in a day even if he’d had help.

“Oh honey I know I look good,” Janus said, as Roman tried and failed to say anything to greet Janus, “The drooling is much appreciated though.”

Roman snapped his mouth closed, “Uh welcome! Your dress is stunning.”

Janus winked as he brushed past Roman, “Why thank you. You look quite nice yourself.” 

Janus tried to disappear into the crowd but Roman didn’t let him get away, “Running away so quickly?” Roman said as he caught up with Janus.

“This isn’t Cinderella, I wasn’t running from you Prince Charming.” 

Roman ignored his heart beating out of his chest, “Prince Charming? Why if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were flirting with me.” Roman said with a slight laugh before extending a hand, “might I have the pleasure of being the first to dance with you this evening?”

Janus took his hand, “The pleasure is all mine.”

The first dance was to much more classical music, Roman had set it up so that when Janus arrived the music would shift into the more ballroom appropriate style of music, but all the other music was decided by what the feeling of the room was. 

As they drifted around the room, their hands intertwined, their eyes occasionally made eye contact and electricity would spark in between them. They only made eye contact every few moments and would always glance away quickly as the tension threatened to snap. 

Throughout the dance Roman noticed Janus loosening up, his grip became looser on Roman’s hand and his movements became more fluid. He was clearly relaxing, like something he’d been dreading turned out not to come true.

When the song ended they were chest to chest and smiling as they stared into each other eyes for the first proper time. 

Roman opened his mouth to say something but before he could Janus had already pulled his hands out of Roman’s and was looking everywhere and anywhere but Roman.

“Thank you for the dance.” Janus said before fleeing. 

~~~

Janus ran. 

Well maybe ‘ran’ was a bit dramatic, but he certainly didn’t stick around to see what Roman was going to say. He probably would have just laughed in Janus’s face for believing him.

He tracked down Remus who was hanging upside down by his knees off the stair bannister as he talked to Virgil.

“There you are!” Remus said as he took one of his knees of the banister to wave at Janus with his foot. 

Virgil cringed and looked at the floor, “I’m so worried you’re gonna fall, but if you do I swear I’ll laugh at you.”

“I’d like to thank you Remus,” Janus said. “Roman was quite literally speechless when I walked in the room, and I know I certainly would not have had an outfit this good without you considering the short notice.”

“Nice!” Remus said, “So he’s who you’re trying to impress?”

Janus blinked, “Um I suppose.”

Virgil bumped his shoulder against Janus’s “That wasn’t very confident, which means that you weren’t expecting that, and Remus hit the nail on the head.”

Janus opened his mouth slightly, “well yes, but only because I wanted to create a better outfit than—”

“You can fool _them_ all day,” Remus said as he gestured out to the crowd. “But sometimes you try to hide your tells so much that it is a tell and it makes you the worst liar.”

Janus folded his arms, “What do you want.”

“Well _I_ want to know how that dance went.” Virgil said, “Looked pretty heated to me.”

Janus rolled his eyes, “It was nice. It ended, he was going to say something, and I ran.”

Remus groaned, “Really? Just when it was getting good.” He let himself fall off the banister but grabbed the ledge with his hands before dropping the rest of the way. 

“You’ve gotta talk.” Virgil said, “I mean you’re just dancing around the elephant in the room. Just ask him out.”

“Virgil you should know better than anyone that it’s not that easy.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, nerves whatever. But it’s not gonna go away until one of you does something!”

“Well it’s not going to be me.”

~~~

“Logan, I’m freaking out!” Roman said as he paced around Logan who was just watching Roman with a slightly amused expression.

“And what exactly is causing this?”

“Aren’t you supposed to like, remember stuff?” Roman lowered his voice and said, “You know... the crush thing on Janus.”

Logan blinked in mild surprise before saying, “Right. That. Now I’m not saying go to Patton, but he’d certainly be better at giving advice.”

“I don’t need advice.” Roman muttered. “I need _confidence_. I just need to walk up to him and say ‘Janus I like you, will you go out with me?’ But when he looks at me my words just shrivel up and die.”

“That’s a little dramatic. But I suppose difficult.” Logan said, he still seemed entertained by Roman’s dilemma.

“Yeah.” Roman sighed.

“Have you tried making a scene?”

“This is serious!”

“Sorry sorry, I was just thinking of things you were good at.”

Roman sat down at one of the tables and pouted, “Logan,” he whined. “Can you do it for me? It’s so hard.”

“Let me get this straight.”

“Please don’t.”

“You think the best course of action in this situation is for me, to go to Janus, and like a bunch of middle school children, you want me to tell him that you like him for you.”

“Yeah that just about tracks.”

“Roman that is quite possibly the worst idea I’ve ever heard. Just tell him yourself.”

Roman sighed, “but what if he says no?”

“Then it will hurt for a while, but at least you won’t be pining after an unattainable goal!”

“Ugh fine... I’ll tell him before the end of the night.”

~~~

Janus glanced over at Roman, “Why is he just standing there?”

“He’s talking to Logan?” Virgil said.

“But _why_?”

“Stop being so antsy, it’s only been an hour. Nothing weird is happening.”

“I’m bored.” Remus said, from his upside down position as he was doing a handstand. “Hey Janus wanna make a deal?”

Janus narrowed his eyes, “That entirely depends.”

“If or when Patton comes over, you have to go talk to Roman.” 

Janus hummed, “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Fine.”

Remus grinned and stood right side up before immediately yelling, “PATTON!!!”

“Shut up!” Janus hissed, “I thought you meant naturally!”

“Well you should have read the fine print! PATTON!”

Patton poked his head out from the crowd and walked over to the group, “Hey guys! Did ya need something Remus?”

“Yes!” Remus said as he jumped to his feet, “Dance with me!”

“What?”

“It’ll be fun!” Remus began to drag Patton to the dance floor, and he glanced over his shoulder and winked at Janus, “I’m sure Janus and Virgil can find something else to do.”

“Fuck you.” Janus mouthed.

As Remus disappeared into the crowd with Patton. Janus sighed and grabbed Virgil’s hand, “Okay come on.”

“Wait what?”

“You’re coming with me and you’re not going to complain about it.”

As they walked over to the piano where Roman was hovering, Janus overheard Roman saying to Logan, who was toying with a violin, “You know you could just not practice now.”

“It’s not practice.” Logan said, “It’s fun. Anyway, you came and interrupted my practice with Avery, and you won’t let me play now, really Roman I’m starting to think you have something against either me or violins.”

“Well I can’t be responsible for interrupting you at a party! It’s a social event!” Roman spotted Janus, “Speaking of being social, hello Virgil, nice to see you haven’t crept away into some corner, and Janus good to see you too!”

“Why hello.” Janus said, “funny seeing you here.

Logan nodded to them, “Greetings.”

“I was wondering if I could steal the second best dressed from you.” Janus said to Logan, as he flicked his hand in Roman’s direction.

“Well I’m not sure how you can steal yourself,” Roman said. “But I, as the best dressed, would be happy to come with you.”

“I believe you misspoke-”

Logan interrupted Janus’s objection by saying, “Why don’t you both take a vote to see who the most fashionable is? Seeing as your quarrel will continue until a resolution is found.”

Virgil snorted, “I don’t know if I would trust him with that.”

“Pardon me?” Janus said.

“I was actually talking about Roman,” Virgil said as he scanned Janus, “but now that you bring it up snake face, I don’t think I’d trust either of you with the task.”

“Excuse you!” Roman gasped, “I resent that!”

“You’ve literally rigged votes in the past to get what you wanted.”

“Fair point.” Roman said, “I still resent it!”

“And Janus is the embodiment of deceit, so not exactly someone I’d trust not to cheat.” 

“I too resent that Virgil,” Janus said as he sent a look over to Roman’s direction, “Frankly I would never cheat first, and I would only rig the vote if I knew my opponent had done so, therefore nullifying the cheating.” 

Logan frowned, “Um that’s not how it works.”

Janus looked around before spotting Patton, “Patton! You agree right?” He yelled.

Patton glanced over before cupping a hand around his mouth and yelling back, “What was that kiddo? I couldn’t quite hear you over this rocking music!”

“This is in no way rock music,” Logan protested. “It seems classical, perhaps with some elements of jazz, but certainly not rock.”

Janus smiled slightly at Logan before calling back, “I asked if you agreed?”

“Oh! Sure thing!”

“See Logan?” Janus said, “it must be right if Patton and I are on the same side.”

“That’s a flawed perspective in multiple ways and we all know it,” Logan said. “But I will concede... for now.”

Janus offered an arm to Roman, “And with that, may I have this dance?”

Roman grinned and the music began to pick up as they walked into the grand ballroom dance hall.

It started relatively slow, a waltz, it felt more comfortable than their first dance, less forced in a way.

“As much as I’ve talked about being more fashionable,” Janus said. “Your outfit truly is stunning.”

“Thank you.” Roman said, “Yours is beautiful, and quite impressive considering the time you had to create it.”

Janus smirked, “I have a knack for details. Speaking of... On Friday, why did you start sparking? You never did say.”

“I didn’t remember!” Roman said.

“Right,” Janus said as he let go with his left hand to effortlessly transition into a spin, “I remember that’s what you told us.” Roman came back around and took Janus’s hand again. “However,” Janus continued, “you forget yourself Roman. I know there’s more there, and you can’t trick _me_ like that.”

Roman blanched momentarily, if he hadn’t known Janus didn’t believe him, he definitely did now. “Um I was thinking about tonight, running through different scenarios.”

“I should really teach you how to lie,” Janus mused. “Not that it would matter to me regardless. But I won’t press you.”

“I’ll tell you soon!” Roman stammered out.

Janus just raised his eyebrow, ah, so it was about him. 

Roman’s grip tightened around Janus’s waist as he twirled him around and fell silent again. Somehow the music seemed to get louder to overcompensate for Roman and Janus’s conversation faltering, but that didn’t make a lot of sense considering they were in no way the only ones talking or dancing. 

“I like you-” Janus started to mumble, it wouldn’t have been audible over the music, but as he spoke the song abruptly ended, and Roman blinked in confusion not at the music but Janus. Janus took it in his stride, “-Tube. I don’t tell you enough how well a job you did guiding Thomas to his passion.” 

“Oh!” Roman said as he rubbed the back of his neck, “Thank you, that’s very kind.”

Janus stepped back slightly, “Every word is deserved.”

“Hi guys!” Patton said as he skipped over with Remus, “Can I steal Jan from you?”

Janus tried not to seem too frustrated as he smiled at Patton, all he’d gotten out of this was a, ‘I’ll tell you soon’, what kind of progress was that? “Certainly, if Roman doesn’t have any formal complaints, speak now or forever hold your peace~” Janus said as he began to walk off with Patton.

~~~

“Be my guest, have fun!” Roman said as he waved them away. He turned away to walk off the dance floor and was met face to face with Remus. 

“Ah god! Remus what are you-” 

Remus leant closer to Roman and squinted, making Roman lean back and look off to the side.

“What’s your angle?”

“Forty five degrees with a slight head tilt.” Roman answered reflexively.

“No, I mean like you and Janus, why are you doing this _thing_?”

“What thing? I’m not doing a thing, you’re doing a thing!”

“Yes you are! You’re like dancing around him, and not saying anything at all when you talk.” Remus said, “Come on, are you into him or not?”

Roman glanced around slightly, “I mean yes,” he said in a half whisper, “Why does that matter?”

“Get a move on then.”

“What?” 

Remus tapped his wrist, “You - move - faster! Or at least make some move since you haven’t even done that yet.”

“Why what when?”

“Because I’m bored of this,” Remus whined, “and you should just make a move, tonight!”

“I mean I was planning to, kind of, well, I was thinking of backing out.”

“Nooo,” Remus whined, “Literally don’t. What’s the worst that could happen? He spontaneously combusts? He hates you so much he burns the castle down? He kills you? He ducks out? He says no? He doesn’t say anything? Come on just _ask_!”

“Very reassuring Remus.”

“Oh come on only like two of those were realistic! It’ll be fine!”

“Why are you so invested in my love life?”

“Oh I couldn’t give less of a crap about your love life! I just want you to stop pinning, it’s boring! Maybe even confess in a fun way!”

“So you want me to confess my feelings for Janus because you just feel like it?”

“Yeah!”

Roman huffed, “If I promise to say something today will you keep your mouth shut?”

“I can’t promise _that-_ ”

“Will you just not tell Janus!”

“Oh!” Remus said, “Yeah sure.”

“Cross your heart?”

Remus plunged a hand into his chest and pulled his heart out, “Hope to die!” He said with a grin.

Roman cringed and nodded, “Thank you, I will say something I promise.”

“Nice, now you wanna show these amateurs how to really dance?”

A few hours after Remus’s conversation with Roman, it was dark enough outside and Roman began to gather everyone outside for the fireworks.

It was the kind of cold that was comfortable, just cold enough to want you to curl up next to the nearest person but not cold enough to go numb. The crowd from inside the castle began to spill out into the field, and little pockets of multi-colored dots spotted the hillside as they began to cuddle together.

Patton ran past Roman, who was standing in the doorway out to the backdoor, with Logan and Janus in tow. Roman watched with amusement as Patton tugged Logan to the ground as Logan stared up at the sky which didn’t have fireworks covering it yet, and Roman could see him pointing out constellations from the true to life night’s sky he’d designed. 

Even from the castle, Roman could tell Janus was laughing. As Logan was pulled down at an awkward angle which left him a tangled pile of limbs with Patton who immediately seized the opportunity to grab Janus and tug him down too. 

Roman sighed fondly as he watched Janus curl himself more comfortably against the other two. What he’d give to be down there right now.

As the final couple people began to trickle out, Remy and Virgil walked by bickering slightly about something inconsequential, but as they passed Virgil sent a knowing look in Roman’s direction which Remy most certainly didn’t miss, and he stopped mid sentence to raise an eyebrow at Virgil. Roman knew Remy would be asking about that, the nosy bitch. 

Roman glanced back at the empty ballroom and gestured back as he stepped forward to the edge of the balcony. All the lights turned off in the giant castle and darkness fell over the field. Roman took a breath as the cool night air washed over him.

“Let the show begin!”

~~~

Janus curled up against Patton and stared wide eyed at the sky as fireworks blossomed against the sky, they were quiet, mostly for Virgil’s sake, but the colors were just as vibrant and beautiful. They whirled in spirals before exploding and scattering the sparks of color, the dazzling balls of silent sparks burst and Janus leant back against Patton as wonderment filled his chest. He’s seen fireworks before since Thomas had seen fireworks before, but he’d never seen them before. They were gorgeous.

Janus scanned the crowd as the initial feeling of amazement began to fade, Roman should be around right? This was his big night, he organized all this and it was the grand finale and he just wasn’t here? Uncharacteristic. 

Janus sat up a little and looked back at the balcony. Illuminated by the multicolor glow of the fireworks, Roman stood leaning against the balcony, staring up at the sky alone. Janus shifted slightly as he thought about getting up, but Patton was pressed into his side and he didn’t want to disturb anyone.

So Janus just sat there watching the fireworks, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he should do something about Roman, he looked so... lonely. 

The fireworks eventually ended and for a little while everyone just sat quietly under the stars, there wasn’t any smoke since the fireworks were imaginary, so the sky was crystal clear, and stars shined brightly down on the crowd.

People eventually began to leave in small clusters, some got up and left through the imagination, others went out through the castle, Janus watched as Roman straightened and bid everyone who was leaving goodbye with a smile.

Janus vaguely noticed Patton standing up and Logan rubbed Janus’s shoulder, “Hey we’re heading out?”

“Good night,” Janus said. “I’ll head home by myself, you know my secret house, which hasn’t been that secret recently.”

“Right,” Logan said as he rubbed the back of his neck, “See you soon?”

“Sure.” Janus shrugged, “Take care.”

Janus waited patiently as everyone slowly disappeared. He stood up and stretched once everyone was gone and walked up by Roman and leant next to him on the balcony.

“Hey.”

“I thought you left already,” Roman said. He paused. “Why are you still here?”

“You looked lonely.”

Roman laughed slightly, “I just threw a party with all of my friends, and you think I’m lonely?”

“Mhm...” Janus said. “Well during the fireworks you stayed up here. It was weird, and you seemed like you had something on your mind and I’m not one to abandon a friend.” 

Roman looked over at Janus and he swore a snake was coiling around his heart and squeezing it to keep it in his chest as it began to beat hard and fast. 

“Friends huh?” Roman asked.

“Are we not friends?”

“We are! Of course we are!” Roman paused and Janus heard him mutter under his breath something about Remus. “Okay, can I talk to you about something?”

“Yes.” Janus said, now or never.

Roman glanced around and blew out a breath, “Okay, well I kinda have this dare thing with Remus.”

Janus’s heart sunk, that wasn’t a great start.

Roman ran a hand through his hair, “And- um fuck okay I’m doing this wrong. I had this whole plan, it was going to be all elaborate, but I just- What was the word you used? Finesse. Yeah I’ve got none of that. Okay maybe it would be better if I showed you?”

Janus frowned, “You were doing fine, but if you must.” 

Roman laughed slightly, “You don’t have to lie to me Janus, I know that was a bad way to start any statement, we all know Remus’s dares.” Roman smiled, “But! Me being bad with words aside, allow me to show you, with hopefully a bit more finesse than my words can provide.” With a sharp movement of his wrist Roman summoned an extravagant bouquet primarily made of yellow and red flowers. Roman held it out for Janus, “how’s this for finesse?”

Janus took the bouquet cautiously, like he was afraid it was going to explode, “They’re beautiful... but this hasn’t answered any of my questions.”

“Right.” Roman rubbed the back of his neck, “I like you.”

“I would hope so. I was somewhat under the impression we were friends.”

“No I-” Roman huffed, “Yes again we’re friends! But that’s not what I was talking about. I was... I like you differently than a friend! I have a crush on you.”

Janus froze. Oh god, he must be dreaming, because there was no way Roman actually felt the same way he did. The heart and brain were cruel, he must have fallen asleep at the fireworks or something, or worse yet the ball hadn’t even happened yet and he was sleeping before or heaven forbid through it.

“Janus?” Roman asked quietly, “Please say something?”

Janus snapped back into reality but didn’t say anything, instead he pinched himself hard.

“Oh.” Janus said when he didn’t wake up and instead was just left with a slightly sore spot on his arm. “This is real.”

Roman winced, “Uh yeah. Sorry?”

“No no no!” Janus said as he panicked slightly, “Don’t be sorry, please don’t be sorry. I was just surprised that you felt that way about me too! Because never in a million years did I actually expect, I mean I just thought it was a stupid prank.”

“You thought what was a prank?”

Janus rubbed the back of his neck, “It’s funny, really you’ll laugh. I kinda maybe bribed Logan a little bit to let me disguise myself as him so I could look at your outfit to see what I was up against?” He blurred out in one breath.

Roman frowned, “What does that-” A look of realization flashed across his face, “Wait it was you at the piano?”

“Yeah...”

Roman snorted and turned to the balcony to look out over the field, “That is funny. We were really dancing around each other for no reason huh?”

“Well not for no reason, I just thought you were joking.”

Roman smiled as he shook his head in slight disbelief, “You know you still haven’t given me a straight answer.”

“I like you,” Janus said. “And I certainly can’t run from the fact that I have a crush on you too.”

Roman grinned, “I know.”

“So what happens now?”

Roman tilted his head, “What do you want to happen?”

“I want this night to last longer.”

“That’s a good start,” Roman said, as he opened the castle doors, “Because I was hoping you’d say something like that.”

Janus watched as the ballroom transformed in front of his eyes. It didn’t change too much, it didn’t need to, but the food and tables disappeared from the edges, the number of chandeliers were cut in half, so low lighting was draped over the entire ballroom. The entire room was completely empty now, besides the piano which had moved to the direct center of the room.

“After you.”

Janus stepped in, his clicking footsteps echoed around the room which had felt so busy and full earlier that night. Janus could hear Roman’s heels clicking behind him as he approached the piano. 

Janus smiled as he caught sight of the oboe on the other side of the bench, he pitched it up and looked at Roman.

“We don’t have to play!” Roman clarified quickly. “Of course doing a duet would be amazing, but I could make them play themselves and we could have a dance, you know one without the... emotional dread?”

“Why not both?”

Roman snapped, “I like your thinking!” 

“Come on pretty boy,” Janus said as he gestured to the piano, “We’ve only got all night.”

~~~

**Epilogue**

Janus woke up at what felt like the crack of dawn, which happened every time he slept at the castle, the birds chirped far too loud for what should be possible for their little lungs. The first few times this had happened Janus had gotten quite reasonably upset, but he’d grow used to the little rascal’s constant conversation.

Janus could feel the rise and fall of the duvet from Roman’s steady and still very asleep breathing. Janus took a breath before slipping out of bed, his feet burnt against the cold wood as he stood up carefully and began to expertly maneuver around the floorboards which were horrendously creaky. 

In all honesty, Janus wasn’t sure why he was bothering to be so quiet. If Roman woke up it would be purely on his own terms and no one else’s. Roman would and, knowing Remus, probably had effectively slept through a hurricane. 

Once Janus cleared the landing around Roman’s room, he practically ran to the stairs and slid down the excessively long banister instead of waking down the stairs because how often were you given the opportunity to actually slide down a banister? 

Janus was in socks, so after sliding off the banister he hit the ground and started sliding against the ballroom floor which had been waxed for the ball. He slid across the ballroom floor like ice as he made his way over to the kitchen. Usually Roman summoned something, but today Janus wanted to make it special. There was no particular reason, he just felt like it!

That was as good a reason as any, Janus thought as he arrived at the kitchen and began to take out the supplies for pancakes he’d snuck in yesterday. The mixing went off relatively without a hitch, besides almost dropping the bowl, but luckily the helper hands were true to their name. 

As the pancakes began to cook, Janus smiled as the smell began to drift around the kitchen. It smelt _good_. Meaning Roman would probably be down soon, the one, and seemingly only thing that was able to wake him up was food. Janus hummed to himself as he drifted around the kitchen, chopping fruit, getting out plates, glasses and cutlery, all hole keeping an eye on the pancakes.

True to prediction, it wasn’t long before Janus heard Roman’s slow morning footsteps approaching the kitchen. Roman arrived in his red checkered pj pants and t-shirt with a crown which read, “This is real Royal-tee!”

Roman yawned as he wrapped his arms around Janus’s waist and nestled his head into Janus’s shoulder, “S’methin smells good.”

“Is it me?” Janus asked jokingly, “I can’t imagine you can smell much else but my shirt right now.”

Roman took an exaggerated breath in, “Mm- you do smell so good, like pine and maple syrup.”

Janus snorted, “Uh-huh maple syrup? I think you might be hungry.”

“Always. Speaking of the food, is this because of something? Wait is it Thomas’s birthday?”

“Is it Thomas’s _birthday?_ Roman, darling come on, please tell me you're not serious.”

“Just answer the question, it’s too early for braining.” Roman said as he took one of his hands from Janus’s waist and gestured vaguely at his head.

“No it’s not Thomas’s birthday, that’s not for months.”

“Okay whatever it was a good guess.”

“Was it?”

“Anyway!” Roman said. “Why the cooking food breakfast stuff?”

“I cook all the time! I’m really the only one of us who _can_ cook.”

“What about Logan?”

“Logan can’t cook _._ Logan can follow recipes. It’s different. But this isn’t because of anything. I just wanted to.”

Janus felt Roman smile against his shoulder as he mumbled something about Janus being a sap, and Janus felt his heart flutter happily as he smiled down at Roman.

Roman squeezed Janus’s waist and hummed melodically, “Can I help?”

Janus looked around the kitchen where his helper hands were hard at work, “I don’t think there’s anything _to_ do.”

Roman kissed Janus’s shoulder, “Mm fine, I guess I’ll let you pamper me.”

About five minutes later they were sitting on the stools in the kitchen eating breakfast. Roman wiggled around as he ate, “This is _so_ good.” Roman said, “Oh this overshadows summoned food by tenfold.”

“Thank you,” Janus said fondly. “I’m glad you like it since I made it with you in mind.”

“Like it is an understatement, this is a-freaking-mazing!”

“They’re just pancakes,” Janus said with a laugh. “You really need to eat more actual food.”

“Yeah I guess- hey! We should totally cook together sometime! Oh we could make a date out of it and then we would take it into the imagination for a picnic and-”

As Roman began to plan their next big date, Janus half zoned out as he watched Roman’s excitement, his eyes were alight with ideas and he flailed around his fork like he was drawing them into existence. Janus always loved seeing that passion in his eyes, it was truly stunning. Roman’s fork flew out of his hand as he clearly got a great idea, and Janus huffed in amusement. 

“Be careful Roman you don’t want to set anything on fire!”

“That was _one_ time!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it please let me know!
> 
> My tumblr is @thesentientmango


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